1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Iran
Compare this sourced profile of Mashhad, Iran before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Mashhad—2,307,177, Asia/Tehran, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: capital city of Razavi Khorasan Province, and second largest city in Iran.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Mashhad is GeoNames ID 124665. Its recorded administrative path is Razavi Khorasan → Iran, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Mashhad occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2025-03-09; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Mashhad ranks 171 by recorded population. Inside the 15 selected Iran entries it ranks 2; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 33. Its 2,307,177 population value is 2.74 times the 841,145 median for the country cohort and 2.56 times the 902,588 regional median. Mashhad falls inside the leading tenth of this atlas's Iran population cohort. Mashhad's recorded value reaches at least twice the country-cohort median in this snapshot. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Mashhad's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Ashgabat at 213.267 km with 1,030,063 recorded people; Herat at 319.966 km with 574,300 recorded people; Mazār-e Sharīf at 672.201 km with 523,300 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 458.934 km. Compared with Ashgabat, Mashhad's recorded population is 2.24 times as large. Against Mashhad, Ashgabat follows Ashgabat → Turkmenistan in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Turkmenistan cohort rather than Iran, uses Asia/Ashgabat instead of Asia/Tehran, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Mashhad's. Against Mashhad, Herat follows Herat District → Herat → Afghanistan in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Afghanistan cohort rather than Iran, uses Asia/Kabul instead of Asia/Tehran, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Mashhad's. Against Mashhad, Mazār-e Sharīf follows Mazar-e Sharif → Balkh → Afghanistan in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Afghanistan cohort rather than Iran, uses Asia/Kabul instead of Asia/Tehran, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Mashhad's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,023 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Mashhad's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 124665, the coordinate pair 36.2981 / 59.6057, country rank 2 of 15, and neighbor GeoNames 162183 at 213.267 km bind Mashhad to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Mashhad's reference point is 36.2981° north and 59.6057° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Tehran is shared by 15 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Mashhad's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Mashhad's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Mashhad's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Mashhad, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Mashhad's closest other entries in this atlas are Ashgabat (213.267 km), Herat (319.966 km), Mazār-e Sharīf (672.201 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Mashhad, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2025-03-09; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.